The Reading Room will offer coffee, wine and a place to gather in former Java Monkey space
The Reading Room, expected to open as early as late summer or early fall, is a partnership between local owners Kristin Radcliffe, left, and Mary Tveit, right. Photo provided to Decaturish.
Decatur, GA — The Java Monkey burned down nearly five years ago, and the property has blighted Decatur’s downtown ever since.
The city lost something special that day in 2018, a local business that was a gathering spot for poets and professionals. Regulars would argue the coffee shop’s decline began before the blaze, when the new owner switched coffee brands and removed some menu items.
After the fire, downtown businesses came and went. Last year, a jury convicted a former Java Monkey employee of burning the place down. An H&R Block tax office took over the space that was once the restaurant’s interior. But there the rest of the property sat, a chain-link fence encircling the patio.
Recently, a banner appeared on the fence advertising “The Reading Room,” a business that promises wine, coffee, and “delectable apéritifs.” And it offers something that’s been missing in the Java Monkey space since the 2018 fire: a place to gather.
The Reading Room, expected to open as early as late summer or early fall, is a partnership between local owners Kristin Radcliffe and Mary Tveit. The building is undergoing extensive renovations to prepare for its Decatur debut.
“The part we are renovating used to be the outdoors part of it,” Radcliffe said. “We’re enclosing it and going to make a cool, welcoming space that’s going to be open all day. Our whole focus is to make something that is a community meeting spot. This is where this whole idea developed, to come up with a place where everybody could feel welcome. That’s where we’re focusing our renovation. It will be something very beautiful but also comfortable and welcoming.”
The patio of the Java Monkey space has been undergoing extensive renovations. Photo provided to Decaturish
The Reading Room won’t have a full kitchen like Java Monkey did, instead opting for pastries from St. Germain Bakery, charcuterie, and desserts.
Radcliffe described it as “somewhere you’re going to come and meet up with people before and after dinner.” They also plan to keep unique magazines and newspapers no one else carries, hence the “Reading” part of the name.
Tveit said it’s been a slow process getting the space ready.
“It’s been kind of bleak down there for a while,” Tveit said.
Tveit said in addition to the business being women-owned, women are overseeing the build-out, and The Reading Room will carry coffee from Little Waves, a woman-owned company based in North Carolina.
She said the company will be about “promoting women and leaning into all that Decatur has to offer.”
“We’re going to try to bring community back. That’s what Java Monkey had,” Tveit said. “We’re going to also pay tribute to Java Monkey. I brought my babies there. Everyone has missed it.”
To learn more about The Reading Room, click here.
Photo by Dan Whisenhunt
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